Harry Potter: Humanity Lost
by M.N.Moore
Summary: Harry Potter returns to his 2nd year at the Justice Academy to discover an evil plot underway which threatens to destroy several classmates and close the school forever. Implicated in the attack, Harry and his friends must find the man responsible.
1. On Oa

**Harry Potter: Humanity Lost**

**Author's Note: **Snow day! Specifically, ice day. Meaning, I'm trapped at home with nothing to do, so I decided to go ahead and get started on the second story in my Harry Potter/DC crossover series.

On that note, if you haven't read the first story in my series you're going to need to read it before you read this one. That story is **Harry Potter: A Brave Beginning**. So, I hope you continue to enjoy this series! Enjoy!

**Homeward Bound**

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore," said Harry Potter, leaning out the window of his temporary bedroom and looking down at the luminous green glow of the planet below. Unlike most boys in his position, Harry hadn't been having the best of summers.

For one thing, he had had more fun in school that he thought he had ever had in his entire life. He couldn't wait to get back to school, and the rest of his friends. In addition to that, he had been forced to spend his summer in the most unusual place that he could possibly imagine - not in Texas, or Kansas, or even someplace weird like Uzbekistan.

Harry was someplace like nowhere on earth - because, as a matter of fact, he wasn't on earth. He had spent the better part of a month on the planet of Oa (as far as he could tell - time was measured differently there.)

"What is Toto?" Dean sat on the edge of Harry's bed, picking cookies out of the tin that Mrs. Weasley had sent along with him at the end of the school term. Harry turned around, feeling the familiar sense of shock he usually did when he saw his old friend in his usual form.

Although Harry had known for a while that green skinned, bug-eyed aliens existed, it was another thing entirely to turn around and see one sitting on his bed. And competing for the last chocolate-chip cookie. He couldn't exactly call Dean bug-eyed, but out of his human form Dean was approximately the color of Kermit the Frog.

"It's just a phrase, from a movie," said Harry, crossing the room. "Remind me to show you the Wizard of Oz when we get back to the Academy."

"Ah, yes. The Wizard of Oz. I had forgotten," said Dean. A strange look crossed his alien face, one that Harry recognized as his friend entering a deep thought. "Are you a wizard, Harry?"

"Something like that," he said, throwing himself down on the bed and snatching the last cookie in the tin away from Dean's grasp.

From the bed, he continued to stare out the window at Oa. It was strange - just a year ago, being able to spend any amount of time in such a strange and wonderful place would have been the subject of his wildest dreams. Now all he wanted was to get back to his friends, Ron and Hermione.

There were so many things he wanted to ask. Hermione had promised him, before going home, that she would think about telling her parents about her entry into the Academy. He wanted to know if she'd gone through with it - to be there to talk to her, if things hadn't gone so well.

And Ron had told him about the hundreds of fun things that he and his brothers and sisters always had planned for summers in Smallville. The wonders of Oa somehow paled in comparison to the idea of fishing trips with Artie and the other Weasley boys. And nothing could seem as exciting as playing football or baseball with a whole gang of metahumans.

After a few moments Dean extracted himself from Harry's bed, standing. "I have a training session in the Pleiades soon. I should go," he said.

"Talk to you later," said Harry. He watched as Dean left the room and then, after a few more moments, he moved to his bed and pulled out the scrapbook that Mrs. Weasley had given him for Christmas the year before. He flipped to the last page, where he had been marking the days ever since he had arrived on Oa. He counted out on his fingers the number of days it had been since he last made any marks in the book. Five, he thought, scribbling several small x's on the makeshift calendar.

And then it hit him. He hadn't even considered his birthday - had almost completely forgotten about it, as a matter of fact. And all of a sudden there it was, staring him straight in the face.

July 31st. It was Harry's thirteenth birthday. A small chuckle escaped him at the thought that he was officially a teenager now - his aunt and uncle would be more afraid of him than ever, if he was still living with them.

"Happy birthday to me," he said morosely. He flipped the book closed just in time to hear a knocking at his door. It opened slightly and his guardian for the summer, the Green Lantern Hal Jordon, poked his head into the room.

"Did I hear somebody say it was their birthday?" he said. He pulled open the door fully and strode into the room.

"Uh…yeah," said Harry.

"Here. Thought you might be feeling a little homesick. And, judging by the tin, Dean's been stealing all your earth snacks." He tossed a handful of candy bars onto the bed. Harry caught one of them, gratefully tearing open the wrapping and taking his first bite of a Snickers in weeks.

"Thanks," he mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate and caramel.

"I decided to pop in for a visit. I was on earth yesterday and Artie reminded me it was your birthday. Your friend Ron also sent a little something along." He pulled out a crudely wrapped package and tossed it beside the candy bars, grinning when Harry exclaimed in amazement.

"Wow! Thanks, Mr. Jordon!'

"Ah. Your enthusiasm makes the fact that I just turned into an intergalactic delivery boy almost worth it," he said with an amused chuckle.

Harry tore into the paper and found several bags of potato chips, a six pack of cola, and more candy bars in addition to the ones that Hal had smuggled in. There was also two cards included inside; one with Ron's hasty scribble on the front, and the other marked with Hermione's neat handwriting.

He opened Ron's first, to find a simple greeting card with at least a dozen scrawled messages from all the members of the Weasley family. He laughed at all their messages, most heartily at the twins', and was grinning by the time he moved on to Hermione's.

When he opened hers, a blue light immediately flooded out from the seam of the envelope. A holograph projected itself out on the floor.

"Hey, neat trick," said Hal, leaning in for a look.

"Hermione is a genius," he said. He leaned in to see the holograph better, just as the image erupted into a bunch of balloons and confetti that floated up around him and seemingly up into the ceiling. Then Hermione's face appeared.

"Happy birthday, Harry!" she said. "Greetings from Texas. It's been a boring summer here, except there was this really interesting series on quantum physics that I managed to get into…oh, you probably don't want to hear about that, although I did take notes on the new theory by Hanai Kanasaga…I'll let you look over them when we get back to the Academy. Oops…the time loop on the holograph is running out. I'll see you soon, Harry."

The image faded. Harry slowly picked up the envelope, glancing for a moment at the thin microchip inside before bundling it away with Ron's card and the treats he'd sent along.

"Thanks for bringing this," said Harry, glancing back to see Hal still standing by the doorway.

"No problem. Hey, would you like to grab some lunch with me?" he asked.

"Er…sure," said Harry. He put his things away and, after a moment, followed Hal out into the long corridor and down to the dining hall of Green Lantern Headquarters. "You know, I was worried that this was going to be the worst birthday ever," he said.

"Well…don't count it out yet," mused Hal. He reached forward for the door and pushed it open. To Harry's surprise he heard a loud cheer as a doorway opened to reveal dozens of aliens, some humanoid and others definitely not humanoid, standing around a long table that was laden with food - a handful of which looked vaguely like the sort of things you might have found on earth.

"The Green Lantern Corps decided to throw together a little celebration for you. Have fun," he said with a wink as he led Harry into the room. "And…don't touch the green stuff," he added, patting him on the back.

Harry sat down at the table next to Dean. "I'd like you to meet Arisia. She will be joining us at the Academy this year."

A young girl grinned at Harry from across the table, waving her fingers mischievously at him. "Hi, Harry," she said. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah…er…same here," said Harry. Unlike most of the aliens he had met, Arisia looked mostly human - except for having bright orange skin and yellowish hair. She was very pretty - either despite her strange appearance or because of it, Harry couldn't be sure.

"Are all the earth boys as cute as you?" she said with a wink. Harry choked and ducked his head down, stammering out a string of random words. He turned his attention to the array of foods on the table and choosing something that almost resembled a plate of pancakes.

He watched as the various Lanterns interacted with each other, joining in the conversation only sporadically. It was very interesting to him how so many people, of different abilities and different backgrounds, were able to join together so well. It surprised him to realize that that was precisely the reason he enjoyed being at the Academy - so many people were different from each other, but mostly they got along.

Harry, for example, was a magic user. He had learned how to do a large number of spells in his last year at school. Because of a number of strange incidents Harry had also learned that he was a shapeshifter, with at least five different forms in addition to his human shape. The five forms were linked to the elements.

The first form, representing earth, was a stag, something that he had obviously inherited from his father. His water form was a water dragon, his air form a giant golden eagle, and his fire form was a dragon. In addition to those four forms he had also discovered that he could become a thunderbird.

His best friend Hermione was able to use and understand incredibly complicated math and science stuff just like it was nothing. She was a genius, and had given up going to one of the best universities un the United States (at the age of 12) to attend the Academy.

His other best friend, Ron, who was also his roommate, was a metahuman who could control water and understand all aquatic life. Although it didn't seem like much of a power, and Ron often got teased for it, on more than one occasion he had managed to save the day with his unique superpowers.

Of Harry's other friends, Luna was his magic teacher's niece and like Harry had a strong mastery of magic and Neville had no powers at all but had been chosen by Batman, otherwise known as Bruce Wayne, to attend the Academy while working as the newest Robin.

Harry had never spent much time with Dean, apart from eating lunch with him or playing on the X-Box in Neville's room. Of all the students at the Academy Dean was the hardest to understand, simply because he was quite literally an alien from another planet.

"Please, Harry, help yourself to some bread from my home planet," offered his newest friend, holding out a basket of some strange material that almost seemed like layered fabric spun from grain. Harry glanced at Dean and, afraid of being impolite, tore a small piece and nibbled at it thoughtfully. To his surprise, it didn't taste bad - good in fact. Almost like the cornbread he had often eaten growing up, except a lot smoother and lighter.

They finished up the luncheon, topped off with at least a dozen different renditions of Happy Birthday from a dozen different planets (as well as the full chanting of the Green Lantern oath, repeated by all the lanterns in unison) and a large, lopsided birthday cake that almost looked appealing but tasted something like sawdust and marshmallows.

"Just how many aliens are there on earth, anyway?" Harry finally asked Hal, once the celebration had ended and the various members of his birthday party finally started disbursing and going there separate ways.

"There's no way to know really. Not as many as the conspiracy theorists think, but a lot more than you probably ever imagined," he said. "A handful at the Academy. Some, like Arisia, who are only going to train for a little while. Some who have immigrated to earth for a better life. And a few, like Superman, whose home worlds are gone forever."

Harry glanced up quickly, just in time to see Hal react to the fact that he had just let a very important piece of information about one of earth's most important heroes slip. "So Superman really is an alien?" said Harry. "I'd always heard rumors, but…"

Hal put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "There's a lot of things you'll learn, given enough time in this world," he said.

In the weeks that passed following his birthday, Harry continued to spend most of his time with Dean, who was joined occasionally by Arisia. Arisia surprised Harry by reminding him in many ways of Ginny, his friend Ron's younger brother, who would be joining them at the Academy in the coming year. He was surprised to find that, despite his early boredom on the planet Oa, Harry came to enjoy himself in his final days on the planet.

On the evening that Hal Jordon was scheduled to retrieve him, as well as Dean and Arisia, Harry threw away what remained of the packages that Ron and Hermione had sent him (which didn't amount to much - he polished off his last half-eaten Snicker's bar just as Dean arrived to tell him that it was time to leave).

Like Mr. Jordon, both Dean and Arisia were dressed in the traditional Green Lantern attire as they prepared to leave the alien planet. Harry felt strangely out of place in a pair of jeans and an old T-shirt that fit a little more snugly than it had a few months before.

"Are you ready, kids?" asked Mr. Jordon.

"I'm not a kid," sniffed Arisia, turning up her nose slightly. Mr. Jordon laughed, shaking his head slightly.

"Right. Whatever you say. Harry, you're going to be traveling with me. Dean, Arisia, keep close behind me. I wouldn't want to lose one of you along the way."

Dean and Arisia nodded, and Mr. Jordon put his hands out to envelop both himself and Harry in the light of the ring that he wore on his hand. They were immediately off, jetting into the deep black vacuum of space as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Harry had experienced the sensation of space travel once before, when he had been taken to Oa for the first place, but the first time he had been so terrified that he'd been unable to focus much on what was taking place around him. Now he kept his eyes wide open, taking in the stars that sailed past and the planets that appeared and disappeared around him with the sort of wonder that he hadn't experienced since his first time meeting other superheroes at the Academy.

If he had ever been shy about asking questions before, now wasn't the time. He found himself asking question after question about the things he was seeing, committing as many of them to memory as he could, knowing that Hermione would want to know all about the trip.

They passed great red giant stars that seemed to fill up the entire sky and small white dwarfs that spun so quickly he could see the gases and vapors that surrounded them whipping through space like a vast whirlpool. Asteroids glittered and danced in the light of the stars, banding together in large belts that spun around other solar systems.

He saw space ships, some like the ones he had seen in movies and others like nothing he had ever seen before. But, as wonderful as everything was that he was seeing - as amazing as the planet Oa had been - one thought occupied his mind. The thought of the Academy, the one place in the universe that truly felt like home.

"We're coming up on the Betelgeuse system right now," said Mr. Jordon. "Hold on. This can sometimes get a bit tricky." Harry nodded, and no sooner had Mr. Jordan spoken than all of a sudden there came an enormous cracking sound that seemed louder than anything Harry had ever heard before.

All of a sudden he was falling. Endlessly into the darkness, the light of the green lantern's ring having disappeared. Harry tried to scream, and despite feeling the vibration of it in his throat no sound came out. He gasped, but nothing was there to rush into his lungs.

Everything was going black, and cold, when the sensation of falling stopped and Harry suddenly became aware of something solid beneath his feet.

"Wh-what happened?" he stammered.

"Dobby is sorry, sir," came a small, timid voice. Harry sat up quickly, realizing that he could see - and breath- again. He was sitting on a small, rocky surface that he recognized after a few moments to be an asteroid. He quickly spotted the creature that had spoken. Sitting across from him was a small creature with large ears and enormous eyes.

"Who are you?" said Harry, quickly scrambling to his feet.

"Dobby is an elf sir…from another dimension. I come to warn Mr. Potter, sir. You are in danger…"

"Of course I'm in danger! I'm on some asteroid in the middle of outer space!" he snapped. Then all of a sudden it dawned on him - he caught the guilty look in the creature's eyes. "You did this!" he shouted.

"It is for your own good! The Academy is not safe. I am here to take Mr. Potter to a safe place."

"There isn't anywhere safer than the Academy! Besides, I protected myself well enough last year," said Harry.

The elf quickly shook his head. "Much safer in my dimension. I can take you there, Mr. Potter…"

"I just want to go home. What have you done to the Green Lantern?" asked Harry.

"I have sent him away," said Dobby simply.

Harry grimaced. He ran his hand through his hair, shaking out the gray dust that had settled there when he landed. And then, what the elf had said hit home. He had said he sent the Green Lantern away. He hadn't said anything about Dean and Arisia. No sooner had Harry thought it than he spun around, lifting his head up to see two green orbs moving quickly through the space around him.

"Lumos!" shouted Harry. All of a sudden a bright white light filled the air around him. The elf trembled, blinking into the light.

"I am sorry, Mr. Potter, sir," he said simply, and with another loud crack he was gone. The two green orbs began to move in closer, and Dean and Arisia landed on the asteroid within moments.

"What just happened?" asked Arisia.

"I don't have a clue," said Harry. "There was this thing, he called himself an elf…"

"An elf?" said Arisia, eyes widening slightly.

"I'm serious. And he said he sent Mr. Jordan away. I don't even know where."

"So, what should we do?" said Dean. "Just wait here, or…"

"Why don't we just head on to earth?" said Arisia. "Dean knows the way. And it'd be a lot safer than hanging around on this rock."

Harry thought for a long moment, then nodded. "I guess that's what we'll have to do then. But it's going to be a longer trip without Hal here - neither of you are strong enough to carry me for too long, so you'll have to take turns."

"Oh, poo, you're acting like this isn't going to be any fun," said Arisia, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Come on, live a little."

"Yeah. Right." He sighed. "Well, school starts tomorrow. So I guess we'd better get started."


	2. Return to Justice

**Harry Potter: Humanity Lost**

**Author's Note: **Yeah, it's taken me a while to update. I've been getting paid to do some freelance stuff, and also working on a few original story ideas. Doesn't leave me much time for fan fiction. That being said, I'm going to try and get into the habit of updating at least this story on a more regular basis. So here's a new chapter. Enjoy!

**Chapter Two**

"Ouch!"

"Sorry!" Arisia was holding on to Harry, the both of them surrounded by the bright neon light emitted by her Green Lantern ring. They were flying through the vacuum of space at a breakneck speed that Harry hadn't noticed when Mr. Jordon had been carrying him. Now he felt a lot more like he was falling.

The stars that had seemed so wonderful were now swirling lines of light that filled his vision, adding to the already throbbing headache pounding at the back of his skull. Several times he'd considered trying some sort of magical spell to ease his discomfort, but each time he decided against it, not knowing how his magic would interact with the power of the Green Lantern ring.

"We're almost there!" shouted Dean, coming close to Harry and Arisia. "Why don't I take him for a bit?"

Arisia glanced over, and after a moment nodded. This was a maneuver they'd already done several times, to ease the strain on both Dean and Arisia of carrying a person through space all the way back to the planet earth. Slowing down to a stop, Dean positioned himself directly below the pair. Then, making Harry's stomach drop completely out of his body, the green light faded and he was floating in the chill of space for several seconds before Dean swooped up, wrapping one arm around Harry's waist.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Harry nodded, although he certainly didn't feel like it. If it were enough that he was barreling through space with what felt to him like no protection at all, he was still trying to figure out why that weird little elf had been trying to keep him from getting back to earth.

It didn't make any sense at all. He'd said he was trying to protect him, but what could possibly have been safe about stranding Harry on an asteroid in what was quite literally the middle of nowhere?

These thoughts consumed him as they entered the solar system that the earth was located in. Harry was overcome by a feeling of relief when Dean pointed out a small yellow star and informed him that what he was looking at was his very own sun.

They circled around Pluto, coming dangerously close to Jupiter as they made their way toward the inner planets. They were forced to slow down as they came up on the asteroid belt in order to avoid slamming into any of the giant, rocky satellites. And then, with the sun hanging bright and beautiful in the darkness of space, Harry finally saw the blue and white marble that was his home.

"We're here!" said Arisia. "Wow! It's a lot smaller than I expected!"

"It's not so bad. At least the food is pretty good," said Dean.

The green light protected them as they descended through the earth's atmosphere. But to Harry's dismay he realized that neither Dean nor Arisia knew exactly where on the planet they were supposed to be headed, and even Harry couldn't tell where on earth they were landing when they finally touched down in what appeared to be a vast desert.

Harry toppled over as his feet touched ground, and despite the sudden influx of heat as the light disappeared he lay down flat on his back, arms and legs sprawled out, as he looked up into the bright blue sky.

"I am so glad to be back," he said. He was still staring upwards as Dean leaned down over him, giving him a quizzical look.

"This does not look like the Academy," he said.

"No," said Harry, not really caring. "No it doesn't."

He continued to lay there for several minutes, taking long deep breaths of the hot, dry air. He heard Arisia settle herself down beside him.

"So how do we get there?" she asked.

"It would be a lot easier if I knew where we were," said Harry. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up into a seated position, elbows resting on his knees. "Are we even in the United States?" he asked. "There's like a billion deserts we could be in."

"Well, we could fly out this way and…"

"No," said Harry firmly. "No flying. At least, not for a little while. Why don't we try walking?" he asked.

Dean and Arisia glanced at each other, probably annoyed or something thought Harry, but just at that moment he didn't really care. He wanted land beneath his feet, at least until his stomach settled and his headache started to go away.

At long last he pulled himself up to his feet, turning his backpack around so he could unzip it and get a good look at the things inside. To his relief he found the communicators he and his friends had made the year before buried halfway between his birthday cards and the last remains of the snacks they'd sent him.

He yanked it out. "There's got to be some sort of GPS on this thing," he muttered, and no sooner than he said it the screen flashed to life and he was looking at a model map of the world. A bright yellow light was pulsing on the screen to indicate where Harry was standing. He squinted, then reeled back in surprise.

"The Sahara?" he said. "The Sahara desert?"

"Are we close to Smallville?" said Dean, cocking his head to the side.

Harry laughed. "No, not even close," he said. "Hold on, I've got to make a call."

He pressed a couple of buttons on the communicator, and heard a faint ringing sound. A moment later Hermione's voice flooded into the air. A feeling of surprising joy overcame Harry – it was the first time he had spoken to his friend since they had parted that summer.

"Harry? Is that you?" she asked, a note of panic in her voice.

"Yes, it's me. Listen, we have a problem…"

"Where are you?" she asked, her voice raising in pitch. "Mr. Jordon arrived at the school just a few minutes ago to say that something happened. Everybody thinks you've been lost in space or something. They've sent Superman to find you!"

"I'm back on Earth. Dean and Arisia and I found our way here. But we need a lift back to Smallville. They should be able to track me down with the coordinates from the communicator."

"You're on earth?" said Hermione, and then over the communicator he heard her heave a giant sigh of relief. "Thank goodness! Yes, yeah, the GPS. I'll go get the headmaster. Oh, I'm so glad you're all right!" she said. There was a faint click and her voice disappeared.

"They're coming for us. I guess we just have to wait here," said Harry. He sat back down on a rock, and after a moment both Dean and Arisia followed suit.

Almost two hours passed. The trio tried to keep up a conversation for the first half of their wait, but as the sun crawled higher and higher into the sky it became too much of an effort to keep a conversation going. Harry conjured up a small stream and they each took turns drinking. For a little while Dean and Arisia tried to keep their camp cool by creating a shell to protect them from the heat, but the trip from deep in space had drained them of much of their power.

Finally, the faint buzz of an airplane made them all look up into the sky. A small metal craft was zooming towards them, and as Harry watched it came to a quiet landing on the sand nearby. The door opened and Oliver and Diana Queen jumped out, in their Green Arrow and Black Canary costumes.

"Harry!" Mrs. Queen shouted, waving a gloved palm.

He jumped up, waving back. Slipping a little as he ran through the sand, he finally found himself being led up the stairs and into the airplane with Dean and Arisia close behind him. The air conditioning inside felt like the best thing ever made, and he sank into one of the comfortable chairs with relish.

"So what exactly happened?" asked Mrs. Queen as Mr. Queen started the plane and they took off flying into the air.

"I…don't exactly know," said Harry, and he launched into his story about the elf. The expression on Mrs. Queen's face went from concerned, to surprised, to deeply troubled as he went through the tale. Finally she just nodded.

"We'll have to discuss this further," she said, ringing her hands together. "Obviously somebody didn't want you getting back to the school. But why they would say it's for your protection…well, that I don't know," she added.

Harry didn't say much else as they flew back to Smallville. He was thinking of another flight that had taken place almost exactly a year before, when he'd stolen his uncle's police cruiser and met Hermione as they both ran away towards something better than the lives they were leading at home. Now the Academy was home, at least to Harry.

He was looking forward to sleeping in what he'd come to think of as his own bed. He didn't even think he'd mind hearing Ron snoring away on the other side of the room. It had been too lonely in his bedchamber back on Oa without his friend there.

And then there was Neville, who he knew had spent the entire summer working with Batman in Gotham City. And Luna, who had been studying magic with her aunt and Harry's teacher, the great and wonderful Zatanna.

When they finally started to descend through the clouds, he looked outside the window with a sigh of relief. There was the school and there, just across the meadows and trees, was the rest of Smallville. The plane landed just outside the Academy and Harry stumbled his way outside, almost immediately finding himself wrapped up tightly in Hermione's arms.

"Harry!" she squeaked before realizing that she was holding onto him and pulling away, blushing slightly.

"Hey, man!" said Ron, moving forward to clap Harry on the shoulder. "You almost missed dinner! Mum and dad are taking us downtown for a special treat. Extra special, you know, since you're not dead and all."

"Ron!" said Hermione, glaring at him. But Harry grinned. This was the sort of thing he'd been missing.

"Sounds great!" he said. And with that he followed his friend towards the slightly battered but well cared for car that Artie was leaning against.

"Glad to hear you made it back safe. Tell me, how's summer in the Sahara?" he asked as he yanked the door open for Harry.

"Uhm…hot," Harry said, sending Artie into a fit of laughter before he jumped in, followed by his friends.

They made their way down into the town. Harry found himself forced to recount his story once again, to a disbelieving Ron and a Hermione who stared at him with wide, troubled eyes.

"This isn't good!" she said.

"Maybe it's just some dumb prank," said Harry. "I mean, there are people out there who might think something like this is funny."

"People like Draco Malfoy, you mean?" said Ron, rolling his eyes. Harry nodded, although he was only half-convinced that a dimwit like his archenemy would be able to think up something so clever. But he had to admit that whoever had done it had access to magical things, and that limited the people who could have been behind what happened to a select few.

"What about Constantine?" Hermione whispered.

"Are you still on about that?" said Harry. "He proved his innocence last year. Sort of," he amended, because it wasn't necessarily true that Constantine had been _completely _innocent in the search for the Philosopher's Stone. He just hadn't been completely guilty, either.

"Whoever it was had to be pretty powerful," said Hermione.

Harry shrugged. At the moment it wasn't the first thing on his mind. He was far more interested in the wide stretch of restaurants that were now appearing on either side of the road. Artie pulled into the lot outside an old-fashioned steak house and parked the car. They all got out, and when Harry walked through the front door he heard a sudden outcry as the rest of the Weasley clan spotted him.

"There you are!" said Mrs. Weasley, beaming. "I thought you might need this, dear," she said, handing him a small bottle full of green goo as he approached the table.

"What…" started Harry, before realizing that it was a remedy for sunburn. He hadn't even noticed his current condition, but as he glanced down he realized that he was lobster red from the tops of his shoulders and down to his fingertips.

"Harry!" shouted Ginny, jumping up and upsetting a glass of water as he started to sit down.

Unseen by the waiters, Fred slowed down time and stopped the glass from topping over. "Did you have a good time?" he said, putting emphasis on the word time.

"Best time of his life, I'll bet!" said George, winking.

"Ignore them, they've become even bigger idiots than usual over the summer," said Ron, rolling his eyes once again.

Harry grinned. Although he loved school, one of his favorite parts about being back in Smallville was getting to spend time with the wonderful, eccentric Weasley family. They were all metahumans with different types of abilities. Artie, Ron's dad, was a technopath with a special talent for building and repairing machinery. Batman had hired Artie to work on the Batmobile several times in the past.

Mrs. Weasley was an empath. She always seemed to know just the right thing to say, or just the right gift to give. Harry knew she must have sensed how burnt he was going to be when he arrived, and he was grateful for the medicine she'd given him – his skin was already starting to sting.

Ron's oldest brothers weren't with the family anymore – they'd already gone off to work for the Justice League in the real world. Percy was the oldest of the Weasley sons currently living in the house, and frankly Harry thought he was kind of a bore. His special ability, if you could call it that, was kind of like Hermione's – he was able to find any information, anywhere, at the drop of a hat. He was kind of like the human version of Google.

Fred and George had, in Harry's mind, the coolest ability out of anybody else in the family. Fred could slow down time, while George could speed time up. Together they were fond of using their abilities to prank the rest of their family, as well as the school. Ron, of course, had been born with the ability to live in and control water, a lot like Aquaman was able to.

Ginny, the youngest member of the Weasley family and the only daughter, had an appropriately frantic power. She was a speedster, and even when she was forced to slow down she seemed to move, speak, and think at twice the speed of anybody else around her. He sometimes found it hard to keep up with her, but Harry liked Ginny.

"What is that, pizza?" she said quickly, leaning over as the server sat down a large pepperoni, sausage, and onion right in front of Harry. "Can I have a slice?"

"No way, get your own," said Ron.

"Sure," said Harry as he picked up his first slice. Ginny grinned, and before he'd even gotten a chance to take a bite of his pizza Ginny had grabbed a slice and gobbled it down.

"Manners!" said Mrs. Weasley, looking out at the rest of the restaurant to see if anybody else had noticed her daughter's breach of etiquette.

"Sorry," she mumbled, smiling sheepishly.

Harry laughed, chewing thoughtfully on his pizza. He fell silent, as he usually did, listening to the rest of the Weasleys discuss everything that had been happening over the summer while he was away. On his left side, Hermione was doing the same as she nibbled at the edge of a garlic breadstick.

"So," he said, while most of the clan was involved in a discussion over baseball. "Did you tell your parents?" he asked.

Hermione blanched. "Uhm…well, you see," she said.

Harry sighed. "You didn't?"

Sheepishly, Hermione shook her head. "No. Well, you see…I was going to, but then there was this symposium my mom and dad went to and they left me at home, and by the time they got back we were taking a trip to Switzerland and…"

"Next summer," warned Harry, grinning at her. Hermione fixed her gaze on him, then started grinning herself.

"Next summer," she promised.

They were in the middle of dinner when all of a sudden Harry realized that the entire Weasley family had gone quiet. He paused over his spaghetti and meatballs, glancing up and turning slightly to see who it was making the family go quiet. A tall man in a expensive suit, flanked by more men in expensive suits and wearing sunglasses, was standing there.

He was a menacing figure. Somewhat older, but it was difficult to tell because his hair had been shaved completely off. He was smiling slightly at the group, and as he watched them his gaze fell over towards Harry.

"Ah, Mr. Potter," he said. "I was hoping I might find you here. Lex Luthor, pleased to meet you," he said, extending his hand out to Harry's.

"Uhm…nice to meet you," said Harry.

"I did some business with your parents," he said quickly, smiling. "I was hoping you'd consent to letting Luthorcorp take over some of the business holdings of your company from Wayne Enterprises…I would love to get to know you better, your parents and I were such dear friends…"

"His parents did everything they could to keep their company from doing business with yours," said Artie suddenly. "Or don't you think anybody remembers the news from thirteen years ago?"

Luthor frowned, turning suddenly to glare at him. "I don't remember asking for your opinion," he said. He paused for a moment, then shrugged and waved his hand at his lackeys, turning on his heels and leaving the restaurant.

"What was that all about?" said Harry.

Artie and Mrs. Weasley exchanged looks. Finally it was Artie who spoke up. "Lex Luthor has had trouble with the law. A lot of trouble with the law," he said. "Right now, he's in the clear, but even when he's not having legal trouble there's a lot of people who don't trust his company. A lot of people think he manufactures weapons. He offered your mother a lot of money once, to hand over part of her company to him. She refused because she knew how dangerous some of the technology she'd developed could be in the wrong hands."

"So what?" said Harry. "Now he's going to be after me?"

"Maybe," said Artie. "Just keep an eye out, and if you see him hanging around don't be afraid to go get one of the teachers. Or Mr. Kent," he added, waving his fork at Harry.

The rest of their dinner was subdued, with Artie and his wife glancing at Harry in concern and Ron and Hermione both glancing nervously his way. Already, it seemed, the school year was off to a rocky start. Weird space elves were apparently trying to keep him out of Smallville and a convicted had just hit him up with a business proposal over dinner. And the first day of class hadn't even started yet.

Finally, Artie paid the bill – (which Harry realized was something of a big deal, considering how poor the family was) and they all marched out of the restaurant. Here was where they were going to say their goodbyes, Harry realized. All the kids were going up to the school and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would be heading back home.

Taking Ginny in her arms, Mrs. Weasley squeezed her tightly. "I'll be fine, mum," she said. "I've got the boys to watch over me," she added, glancing back at the twins with a devilish grin.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said with a sniff, and finally she released her daughter and started hugging each of her sons in turn. Harry took a step back from this display. As much as he enjoyed spending time with the Weasley family, this was the sort of thing that was hardest for him to deal with.

He didn't have parents to hug him goodbye as they sent him off to school. As she watched him Harry could see that Hermione was thinking the same thing – even her parents had been there to say goodbye, even though they thought she was going to someplace…well, not in Kansas.

Mrs. Weasley finished hugging the various members of the family, and surprising Harry she turned to him after she released Ron.

"You take care of yourself, too, young man," she said, reaching forward and taking him in her arms. "I don't want to hear about you getting into any kind of mischief this year. Keep your head down and your grades up, all right?"

"Right, Mrs. Weasley," he said, and with a final squeeze she let go of him.

"Time to go, everyone. Off to the school," he said.

"I'll race you there!" said Ginny with a devilish grin.

"Wait!" started Mrs. Weasley, but it was too late. The speedster had sped off.

"We'll go after her, mom!" shouted Fred. Then, in a flash and with a strange feeling of timedistortion overwhelming them for a moment, the twins were off too. Ron rolled his eyes.

"That girl," said Mrs. Weasley, although she didn't look too angry. "I'm off to the house. I do hope all of you come and see me whenever you get a break," she said with a smile. Then she got into her car, and Ron, Hermione and Harry bundled themselves into the backseat of Artie's car, with Percy taking the passenger seat up front next to his father.

"Do you think she'll be all right?" said Harry.

"Oh, Ginny? Yeah, she's gone racing through Smallville loads of times," said Ron.

"She ought to be more careful, though," said Hermione. "Especially with people like Lex Luthor running around!"

Ron shrugged, pulling a packet of gummy bears from the pocket of his jeans. Absently, Harry plucked a handful from the bag and chewed on them as they made their way up the road and towards the concrete towers of the Justice Academy.


	3. Evolution

**Humanity Lost**

**Author's Note: **About the no air in space thing – I'm kind of working with the idea that Harry's magic offers him a small amount of protection. After all, he's still not your ordinary kid. But it's not enough to enable him to travel through space. And don't rule out any "new" forms just yet.

**Chapter Three**

Harry wasn't surprised that, the moment he woke up on the first day of school, the story of his trip to Oa and subsequent journey through space was the talk of the school. He was barely out of his pajamas and into his uniform when there was a knock at the door and he opened it to Neville, Seamus, and Luna all staring at him somewhat goggle-eyed as he was forced to tell them the true story of what had happened the day before.

"But that's insane!" said Neville as they made their way down to breakfast. "Some weird…elf thing? Do you think…"

"Voldemort?" said Harry, dropping his voice a little so that only the people nearest to him could hear. "Yeah, I thought about it. I'm not sure, thought. It felt different than what happened last year. Whatever it was, I don't think the thing wanted to hurt me. "

Neville didn't seem convinced – but then again, Harry couldn't be that surprised. Neville wasn't exactly the most trusting person in the world. For one, his parents had been killed and he'd devoted the first part of his life to tracking down the person who'd done it. And in addition to that, he was now the sidekick to the most untrusting person in the entire universe.

"By the way," said Neville, as if he'd psychically picked up on the fact that Harry was thinking about Batman. "Mr. Wayne wanted me to tell you that…wait, let me see if I got this right." He straightened up suddenly, adopting an all-too-serious look on his face. "Your assets are protected," he said in a gravelly tone. "I won't let them fall into the wrong hands."

Harry and Neville both started laughing. "Well, that's cool, I guess," said Harry, who until his encounter with Lex Luthor the day before had barely even thought about his "assets", as Mr. Wayne had called them.

"He's also deposited your money for the year into your bank account," said Neville. "Wait, he gave me the statement to hand off to you."

He paused in the middle of the hallway and Harry and the others stopped to, watching for a moment as he fumbled around in his bag. After a moment he pulled out a large manila envelope and handed it to Harry. Still standing in the middle of the hall he pulled it open, searching the fine print on the paper until he finally found the amount that Neville had pointed out to him.

His eyes bugged out. "This much?" he said.

"Don't tell me you've gotten even richer," said Ron, looking over his shoulder. When he saw the rather large number on the page his eyes bugged out too and he clapped Harry on the shoulder.

"I know Christmas isn't for a while, but how about a dirtbike?" he said. "Or maybe ten dirtbikes?"

Harry laughed, shoving the paperwork back into his own bag. "Yeah, right. So your mom can kill me after you wreck the thing? No thanks," he said.

They continued toward the great hall, where all the other students were already gathered around. Harry spotted Arisia waving her arms extravagantly as a bunch of other first years, including Ginny, gathered around her. She glanced up and then pointed, and Harry almost swore that every head in the room turned to look at him. Then the buzz grew even louder.

"Guess we know how the story got spread around," said Harry, as he and the others took their places at one of the few empty tables that were left.

"Looks like my sister got in safe," said Ron, as the girl in question quickly turned around and waved excitedly at them. "Fred and George came in around ten o'clock and said they hadn't been able to find her."

"Really?" said Harry. He must have been asleep. He was pretty sure he had dropped off the moment he got back to his room.

"Mum's going to be ticked if she finds out. Ginny's always doing stuff like that."

Harry shrugged. He reached for a bowl of oatmeal and dug in. After months on Oa, he was stunned to realize that even the most bland earth foods tasted like heaven. He polished off the entire bowl and was digging into a muffin when Ron fixed his gaze on him and, fingers twined together, asked in his most matronly tone, "So what about you and Laura Lang? You forgot to call her last night."

He choked on a few stray crumbs, having almost forgotten about his promise to keep in touch with the girl from town. He started to blush.

"Oops," he said. "Think she's going to be mad?"

Ron shook his head and sighed. As if you know any more about these kind of things than I do, thought Harry, washing down the muffin with a glass of milk. He glanced over at Hermione, who was deep in conversation now with Neville about something. If she had heard anything she wasn't acting like she had. And maybe that was for the best.

They had come very close to feeling…something…about each other the year before. But they had both seemed to decide that it was for the best that they just stayed friends. Seeing that he was watching her, Hermione sent a smile his way and he sent one back.

Yeah, just friends. That was for the best.

As they were nearing the end of their breakfasts, the headmaster stood up and cleared his throat to give the traditional beginning of the year speech. Everybody reluctantly quieted down, and Harry finished the last of his breakfast as Mr. Jonzz started to speak.

"Welcome, everyone," he said. "New students and old alike. Last year was a trial for many of us, with many ups and downs throughout the year. It is these challenges that help decide who and what we are and all the teachers, including myself, look forward to another challenging year."

There was a smattering of applause at this, and Harry blushed when once again he realized that several students were looking his way.

"On that note," said Mr. Jonzz, "I would like to welcome a special guest to our school. Because our student body is now one of the most diverse that we have ever welcomed, we have deemed it necessary to include an Alien Studies program to our curriculum."

"That's rubbish!" Harry suddenly heard a familiar voice exclaim. He turned his head to see Draco Malfoy sitting a few tables away, with a scowl planted firmly on his face. Realizing that everybody had heard him, Draco sank down a few inches, but his expression remained the same.

"Well, I think it'll be interesting," said Hermione, her voice dropping in pitch so only those at their table could hear. Harry nodded. While it had been a difficult few months living on Oa, it had certainly been educational.

Looking over the students as if to see whether or not there would be any more outbursts, Mr. Jonzz finally continued. "This class will be taught by Mrs. Shayera Thal."

"Hawkwoman!" gasped Hermione. Harry glanced over at her. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was gaping in admiration. A woman appeared on the podium, her stern face looking over all the students as if she were examining them all.

"She's…amazing!" said Hermione. But Harry wasn't really paying attention to her anymore. As the woman on the podium bowed he saw that she had immense wings folded up against her back, and after a moment of digging through what he knew about superheroes he suddenly remembered who the woman was, and why Hermione was staring at her in such reverence.

"It will be an honor to teach such bright young minds," she said shortly, and then that was it. Breakfast was over, and schedules were being handed out. Harry glanced down at his. It was practically the same as his schedule from last year, with only a few small differences.

"Ugh…I have an economics class?" said Harry. "Why do I have to take an economics class?"

"Oh, I don't know," said Ron. "Maybe it's the tons and tons of money you have?"

"I'm in that class too," said Neville.

Both he and Ron had been moved up a level in their combat classes, while Neville had been moved up two levels. Hermione was still in the basics course, which she admitted with a faint blush to the rest of the group. Hermione was also taking several of the highest level science and technology courses.

Another new class that surprised Harry was "Introduction to Flight Mechanics" which, Neville explained, all the second year students took so they would be able to pilot any of the airplanes that were owned by the Justice League.

There was also a block of courses that had been left blank on all their schedules. When Harry pointed this out, it was Ron who explained the importance of it.

"They're going to place us in our 'talent' course," he explained. When Harry still didn't understand, Ron continued.

"Well, you know they put us in a bunch of ordinary classes so we can develop a…a secret identity, sort of thing," he said. "Second year students do a round of aptitude testing and stuff. They go by how well we did last year in our classes, run some tests, find out what our non-superhero interests are, and stick us in private lessons once a week so we can develop a talent."

"I'm sure I'll just be doing more science classes," said Hermione. "I mean, I don't really need a secret identity or anything, do I?"

Ron shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think I have any real talents."

"Apart from swimming and talking to fish, of course," said Harry. "Hey, maybe that's what you can do! Ron Weasley, dolphin trainer!"

"Dolphin aren't fish, moron," said Ron, sticking out his tongue.

"Yeah. And you'd know because you asked them," said Harry.

Ron was about to come back with something but the bell rang and they were all forced to move. His first class of the day was with Zatanna, and as everybody else made their way in different directions he found himself walking alone with Luna towards the portal that would move them up towards the satellite.

"Did you have a good summer?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Luna fixed her gaze on him. "It was nice enough, I suppose," she said. "But I am glad to be back home."

They approached the landing pad, but before they could step on they felt somebody shove past them. Draco stepped up and turned, glaring down at the pair. "Sorry, this landing pad is full," he sneered, and pressing a couple of buttons he disappeared into thin air. Harry rolled his eyes. It looked like he was still going to have Draco to deal with for the coming year.

"Don't worry about him," said Luna after a moment. When the green light flashed again they stepped on and pressed the button that would teleport them up into the satellite that had been set aside for Zatanna's magic lessons.

Everybody else was already there when they finally arrived. "Glad to see everybody made it back safely," she said.

"Yeah, even alien boy," said Draco. "Not a surprise you'd spend your summer hanging around with those kind of people. Oh wait, they're not people," he added.

To Harry's surprise, that got a chuckle out of even Seamus.

"I'll have none of that talk inside my classroom," said Zatanna. That shut Draco up quickly, although the look on his face said everything that he couldn't. "

"We're going to start our regular lesson shortly, but first I wanted to talk to Harry. Privately," she added. Harry glanced up, seeing a strange expression on Zatanna's face. Wordlessly he stood up and followed her into the next room. He could see through the one-way mirror into the next room, and Draco was making strange faces and gestures that Harry was certain were meant to be insulting to him.

"Idiot," he mumbled, as he turned away and gave his teacher his attention.

"I wanted to talk to you about the magic you did, last year," she said. "We didn't really get a chance before it was time for the semester to be over."

"Oh," said Harry. "Yeah. That."

"The surveillance videos captured pretty much everything," she said. "I wanted to ask you about one thing in particular." She reached down beneath the table and pressed a button. All of a sudden the wall behind them split in two and Harry was staring at a wide screen.

"Surveillance videos?" he asked.

Zatanna smiled. "Of course. The entire school is protected this way, Harry. We just aren't as…well, open about it in some areas."

Harry blushed. So that meant that Zatanna, and all the other teachers, had been able to see everything that had happened when Harry and his friends had been forced to face Jason Todd a few months before. Zatanna pressed a second button and all of a sudden a video started to play. He was looking at himself, in the suit that he had concocted, standing in the middle of a darkened corridor.

He was surprised to realize just how…real…everything looked. He hadn't really been thinking about it, then, but it was almost as if he were looking at a real life superhero.

And that's when it hit him. For a moment, back then, he had been a real life superhero.

He watched the video play out – watched himself speaking words in Latin that he suddenly knew, without knowing how he knew.

The clip she played him was about fifteen minutes long, and cut together from fragments of video from all over the place that night. When it was over she sat down on the edge of the table, peering down at him.

"So. Do you know how you did all that?" she asked.

Harry shook his head. He had thought about it many times, had tried to explain it to himself, but nothing made sense. It had just come to him, in a flash. He told Zatanna exactly that – about the lightning, and how he had just felt the words flowing into his head. Her expression grew more and more troubled.

"I'm not certain what to make of this," she said. "But it doesn't seem like the way we've been approaching your magic is going to work anymore. Especially now that you have five different forms," she added. At this point he saw a little bit of pride come over Zatanna's face, and he remembered that she had been the one to help him transition into the first of these forms.

"I've got some ideas. But we'd better get class started. I think Luna just turned Draco into a ferret."

They turned around and entered the main room just in time to see Luna standing over a small white furry thing as it scurried around on the floor. Seamus was staring at it aghast.

"Namuh niaga," she said lazily, waving her hand. The white ferret suddenly grew in size and turned into Draco, who paused for a moment belly-down on the floor before slowing getting to his feet.

After his magic classes he made his way to combat training, where he met up again with Ron. He wanted to tell his friend about what had happened with Luna and Draco, but they barely had time to say hello before they were running laps. The few months away from school had done their damage, and with very few exceptions everybody was keeled over and panting by the time the first half hour of the course was done.

Lunch came next, and the group gathered together again briefly. Harry and Ron, still worn out from their lessons, were barely able to speak, so Hermione dominated the conversation by telling them all about the new theories that they were going to be testing in the labs with Dr. Choi.

The group didn't meet again until their very last class of the day, which they were going to be taking with Shayera Thal. Hermione's reverence for the woman didn't seem to have disappeared as they entered the room, which Harry quickly saw had been outfitted with a variety of new gadgets that were hung across the walls.

The feel of the room was very different than it had been while Constantine was their teacher. Gone were the assorted runes and magical devices – the area was now very clean and pristine, although the faintest smell of cigarette smoke still remained.

"Crap," said Ron. "Hey, I guess they took the anti-cussing ward off!"

Once they were all settled Hawkwoman came into the room, barely giving them a second glance. "I am honored to be teaching this class," she said. "I am Shayera Thal, of the planet Thanagar. This is my home," she said. All of a sudden the lights went out, and to Harry's surprise the entire room seemed to turn into a giant planetarium. The stars began to move and shift, and suddenly Harry found himself looking at a small planet circling a trio of stars – one giant, and two very small."

"Do any of you know which solar system Thanagar belongs to?" she asked.

Hermione's hand shot up, and in the dim light Hawkwoman pointed her out.

"Polaris!" said Hermione. The teacher smiled and nodded. "Very good. Yes, my planet circles Polaris, which many of you know as the North Star here on earth. There are a great many planets throughout the universe – some dead and dying, some brand new. Many of them have people who live there. And many of those people have made their way to your earth.

"I am here in the hopes that you may understand these other races that you may come in contact with. A few of them inhabit this very school. Some of them you may even call your friends."

"Not likely," said a voice in the darkness, just low enough that Harry could hear it. Hawkwoman stiffened, but carried on as if she hadn't heard anything.

"Draco!" hissed Hermione.

Harry nodded. He'd recognized it too. He knew, of course, that Draco was one of those who believed that aliens and metahumans weren't "real" heroes. He'd said as much last year, when he'd met him for the first time. But to Harry's mind it didn't seem to make much difference. After all, there were aliens who had devoted themselves to helping people on earth, and they were more human than anybody else he knew.

People like Superman, for instance.

That evening, over dinner, he brought up the subject to his friends. Dean was sitting with them, head bowed down thoughtfully.

"You know, that was one of the big things Voldemort was interested in, back in the day," said Hermione. "Banishing aliens from earth, I mean."

"Really?" said Harry. Although the man had killed his parents, and in a weird way he had killed him, Harry had never really done much research about him. Ron nodded and continued where she had left off.

"Yeah. He thought the earth should be purified. People like Draco still kind of think the same thing. That aliens should be kicked off the earth, and the supers should take their 'rightful place' or whatever. He had like…like a ranking system. Ordinary humans, metahumans like me and my family, and magic users on top."

"Awesome," said Harry. "That means I get first dibs on everything. Hermione, hand me that cupcake."

"Shut up, Merlin," said Hermione, picking up the cupcake in question and taking a huge bite out of it.


	4. Talent

**Harry Potter: Humanity Lost**

**Author's Note: **Yeah, lots of updates lately. I'm in the mood to write, but not feeling up to working on my original stuff so...yeah.

**Talent**

"They're probably going to put me in lessons that'll make me even stupid and dorkier than I am now…"

"Ron…"

"Like ballet or something. Or maybe one of those really lame sports, like…like rowing. Oh god, it has to do with water, they're going to make me a rower, aren't they?"

"Ron!"

"And then my superhero identity and my normal identity will both be equally lame, and I'll never ever be cool a single moment in my life, and I'll just go and live underwater with Aquaman and a school of mackerel…"

"Ron! Shut up!" Hermione was sitting on the floor of Harry and Ron's dorm room, staring up at Ron as she snapped him out of his rant about the upcoming talent placements. "It doesn't mean anything," she said. "It's just giving you one option for after you leave here. Even if they do put you in lessons to become a ballerina or something nobody is shoving it down your throat any more than anybody is shoving it down your throat that you have to join the Justice league and fight crime."

Ron stopped and stared back at her. Harry, as he watched them, almost expected Ron to spit something snarky and stupid back at her, but he simply shrugged. "Fair enough," he mumbled. And that was that.

While his friend seemed to be concerned about the "talent" placement all the second-years were forced to undergo, Harry had barely given it a second thought. The future seemed so far away. And, on top of that, he really couldn't think of a single area in which he excelled that he could manage to make a living off of in the normal world.

Not unless he could get away with making a living off of being able to transform into random mystical animals. Or performing magic tricks.

Hey. He could become a stage magician.

"Do you think I'd even have to do anything when I got older?" wondered Harry aloud, causing both his friends to stop and turn to him. He sat up, dropping the book he'd been staring at (uselessly) for the past several minutes into his lap. "I mean, I've got more money than I could ever want, and Mr. Wayne is using Wayne Enterprises to make even more money of it. Technicallly, I'm loaded."

"Yeah, but you should at least learn business so you can keep an eye out on the money when you're of age," said Hermione.

"But technically, I could hire people to do that. Couldn't I?" said Harry.

A grim expression came over Hermione's face, while Ron was nodding as if he thought it was a noble idea.

"You aren't really thinking that?" asked Hermione.

Harry considered it for a long moment, and finally shook his head. "No," he finally admitted. "Not really. I want to do something. I just don't think I'm good enough at anything that matters to go doing it for the rest of my life. And it's not as if I have to be an accountant or a dentist or anything to make ends meet."

"I would love it if I could just go and do nothing, like that," said Ron. "Look at Mr. Wayne. Parties, supermodels…living the dream," he said wistfully, dropping back on his bed.

"Yeah. And spending every single night fighting the bad guys of Gotham City almost single-handedly," added Harry. "When he's not helping out the Justice League." Finally setting his own homework aside altogether, he let his thoughts ruminate on that idea for a moment. "Do you think maybe that's what I could end up doing? I mean, it's not like I actually have to work. I could devote myself to this…crime fighting thingie…if I wanted to."

"What?" said Hermione, seeming surprised. Now she set aside her own book – not an easy task for her by any means. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, maybe that's what I'm meant to do. Not any rubbish about living a "normal life" when I'm not needed, or whatever. I mean, my parents were killed by a bad guy, just like Wayne's folks."

"Yeah, and look how well he turned out," said Hermione with a wry smile. "He's just a perfectly ordinary man who runs around at night in a rubber bat costume."

"Shut up," said Harry.

In truth, it wasn't the first time the idea had occurred to him. He knew for a fact that it was something that occupied Neville too. How could it not? Like Harry, and Mr. Wayne, his parents had been taken away from him thanks to the sheer insanity of a supervillain. But there was a difference, Harry realized. Where Batman saw his parent's murderers in the face of every villain he brought to justice, Harry saw his parent's murderers in only one man.

Voldemort.

The idea that he was still out there, somewhere, had been something that had stayed buried in the back of his mind throughout the summer. It had been easier, before he really realized who his parents were, to ignore the fact that they had been buried. But just a few months before, he had come as close as he thought he ever could to the man who had ripped them away from him.

It made him realize that not only was the man still alive, but that it was entirely possible he might come back.

His thoughts were interrupted when the phone began to ring shrilly, causing all three of them to look up.

Hermione reacted first, snorting as neither of the boys moved to pick up the phone. "Well, I'm not going to answer it," she said. "It's your room."

Finally it was Harry who jumped up, grabbing the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Harry!" he heard a familiar voice cry out. He winced. It was Laura. He'd almost forgotten about her.

"Hey, Laura!" he said. "Sorry I couldn't get in touch earlier…family…thing…"

"It's all right, I understand," she said, though there was a little tone of annoyance in her voice which he was reasonably sure meant, "I don't understand at all but I'm willing to let it pass this _one time." _Harry was only comfortable with saying he was reasonably sure because, with the exception of Hermione, Harry was aware that he didn't understand girls at all.

And even Hermione could be a mystery, sometimes.

"Do you have the evening free?" she asked. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to have dinner or something?"

Harry glanced over at Ron and Hermione, who were shooting him looks of amusement (in Ron's case) and annoyance (in Hermione's).

"Uhm…sure," he said. "Meet me in an hour?"

"I'll be at the gate!" said Laura. Then there was a faint click, and she hung up.

"Smooth," said Ron, dodging at Harry threw a book he was meant to be studying at him.

"Little Laura Lang must be the talk of Smallville Junior High," said Hermione, rolling her eyes. "Dating a boy from the Academy and all."

"Hey, it's not like that Hermione," said Harry. He reached for the cleanest set of clothes he owned and slipped off into the bathroom, changing as he heard his friends arguing in the room beyond. He emerged a moment later, staring at his messy hair as he tried to flatten it with the palm of his hand. When he had decided the effort was pointless, he turned back around. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hermione. I need to go get permission from one of the teachers if I'm going to be leaving the school."

And with that he stormed off. He didn't know why Hermione's accusation that Laura was just dating him to make herself look 'cool' stung. It wasn't as if they were actually serious about each other. They were only thirteen, after all.

But, still, Hermione was smart, and the fact that she would even say something like that was making him nervous. He found Mrs. Queen wandering the halls and accosted her, and after only a moment's hesitation she told him that she supposed it would be all right for him to pop off for an hour or two.

So long as he wore a tracking device, of course.

So with the small metal bracelet firmly locked around his ankle Harry set off down to the gates, where Laura was standing beside a small blue electric scooter. "I got it over the summer," she explained, blushing as she pointed at it.

Harry pushed through the gates, wondering for a moment what he should do. Should he kiss her? No, that wasn't right, they'd never kissed before, why do it now? Shake her hand? Oh, yes, that would go over well. He might as well say, "Good evening, madam, fine weather we're having," while he was at it.

He settled for slipping one arm awkwardly around her shoulder and giving her what could possibly pass as a light hug. Laura seemed slightly disappointed, but still smiled.

"You can drive it, if you like," she said. She guided him onto the scooter, giving him a crash course in how to pilot the thing, then she slipped on behind him, her arms wrapping tightly around his waist. He felt butterflies fluttering around somewhere in the region of his stomach as he started it and zipped off down the hillside, stopping and going sporadically as he got used to controlling it.

Her cheek pressed down against his shoulders and she sighed. "This is so nice," she said.

"Uh, yeah," said Harry. "Hey, where are we going?"

Laura pointed to a small street close by. He recognized it as being the same stretch of restaurants that the Weasley's had taken him to dinner to his first night back. "What about there?" said Harry, pointing at the same restaurant.

"What?" He felt her tense up as she stared past him to see what he'd picked out. "Oh, no! That's way too expensive!"

Harry shrugged. It wasn't as if he couldn't afford it. "My treat," he said. He barreled downhill and parked Laura's scooter right outside the restaurant, walking inside to immediately be set upon by a tall and grim looking maitre'd.

"Our bathrooms are for paying customers only," he said, smiling in the way that really smug people smile when they're trying to tell you to buzz off.

"We're paying customers," said Harry.

"Oh?" said the man. "Ah…young man, I'm not sure you're aware of how expensive a place like this can be. There's a nice McDonald's right down the road…"

"I can pay." Harry reached down into his pocket and pulled out his credit card, passing it to the man. Whether it was the sudden appearance of plastic, or the name that was emblazoned on that plastic, Harry couldn't be certain, but all of a sudden the man's attitude completely changed. He smiled, a bit less snidely this time, and waved his hands.

"Of course. My apologies. Right this way," he said.

They were seated at a small table towards the back of the restaurant. "You didn't have to do this," said Laura, who was at this point slightly flushed and entirely entranced.

Harry shrugged. "I just got all this cash in from my mom and dad's company. There's no way I need that much. Besides, it's not every day I go on dates with really cool girls like you."

All of a sudden Laura flushed even brighter and developed a sudden interest in the bubbles fizzing in her soda. Then Harry realized why. Had he actually used the 'd' word? He groaned inwardly. That was…dumb. Dumb was a good word for that. She probably thought that he was a complete idiot now. But when she looked back up at him she was grinning from ear to ear.

"I thought…well, I thought after not hearing from you over this summer that you didn't like me that way," said Laura. She reached out immediately and took him by the hand. "I'm so glad that we're…you know," she said.

And here it comes, thought Harry.

"That you're my…"

Harry felt time stop completely for a moment, and he was half tempted to get up and look around to see if Fred and George had somehow followed him down into town.

"My boyfriend," Laura finally finished.

There it was. He blinked, perhaps a little too quickly, and what felt like forever passed before he was able to figure out what to say. Finally he smiled. "Yeah. Cool, isn't it?" he said, feeling like a complete idiot.

Harry stumbled back into the Academy later that evening. He didn't remember taking the stairs up to the dormitories, or yanking off the tracking bracelet and throwing it at the door to Mrs. Queen's room. He just remembered knocking at somebody's dorm room door and staring into space waiting for them to answer.

When they did, it took Harry a moment to realize why he'd even come to this particular person for help. "I've accidentally gotten myself a girlfriend," he groaned.

George (or was it Fred?) stared at him in surprise. He rarely spoke to the twins except for when he was with Ron, and it was as much of a shock to Harry as to them that he suddenly found himself coming to them for guidance.

"Oh really now?" said George. "Accidentally?"

Harry nodded wordlessly as George ushered him into the room. They sat him down on the side of one of their beds. Since they were brothers, and twins, and in the same year, Fred and George shared a room. Unlike most of the shared rooms it was really difficult to tell which side of the room belonged to who, which wasn't surprising. The twins had been sharing a room from the day they were born.

There were a few books, scattered here and there, which told Harry that on rare occasions the boys did actually like to read and study once in a while. But the truly interesting thing about the room was the large number of clocks that filled the space. They covered tabletops, they hung from the walls, and a battered old grandfather clock had even found its way into the room and was standing off to one side.

"It's Laura Lang, from town," said Harry. "Ugh! Can't you go back in time and stop me?" he said.

"Nope," said Fred. "Whether you slow it down or speed it up, time marches steadily onward in one direction," he said, coming over to pat Harry on the back. "You know, if you don't like her you can break up with her."

"After only a day?"

"Less than a day."

"Have a heart, man!" said George. "You should wait at least a week before seeing her again, and then break up with her."

"You could always say you're dying and you don't want them to see you suffer," said Fred.

"That only works if they're moving away or something," said George. "And if they come back and find out you haven't actually died, then they'll make you wish you were dead." The way he winced made Harry think he knew this from experience, though how and why he couldn't guess and was too afraid to ask.

"But…see, the problem is," said Harry, "I really like her. I really, really like her. But I don't think I want her to be my girlfriend. I mean, it's not like we've even kissed or anything…"

"Ah, so there you are! Kiss the girl man!" said Fred, clapping each of his hands on Harry's shoulders. Then all of a sudden time blurred to a standstill for several long moments, and by the time Harry opened his eyes again Fred and George were standing in front of him wearing grass skirts and leis. And Fred was strumming a ukulele.

"What the…" muttered Harry.

"Sha-la-la-la-la-la my oh my, you're going to miss the girl if you don't…kiss the girl," they sang.

Blushing from the tips of his ears to his toes, Harry rushed out of the twins' room and back down the hall until he found the second year dorms. He paused for a moment outside his own door, then knocked on Neville's. It took a moment but finally he answered, looking slightly bleary eyed and wearing Batman-print pajama bottoms.

"Harry?" he muttered.

"I need to talk to someone. Someone who isn't insane," Harry added, thinking of the twins in their grass skirts.

"Sure. Come in," said Neville. He stepped aside and Harry followed him into the room. He sat down in the chair in front of the computer desk, waiting for Neville to sit down on his bed. And then everything came spilling out. Neville listened to him ramble on for several long minutes without saying anything, and when Harry finally paused – right after rushing away from Fred and George singing "Kiss the Girl" – his friend eyed him for a long moment.

"Do you want Laura to be your girlfriend?" he asked.

"Uh…well," said Harry.

"Easy question. Yes or no?" said Neville.

"W-well…it's just…"

"Yes or no?" said Neville, jumping up slightly. His fists were clenched at his sides, and Harry was suddenly very aware of the large number of muscles that Neville had developed while he was gone for the summer.

"NO!" shouted Harry. Neville sat back down, grinning.

"Cool. Mr. Wayne's interrogation tactics really work."

Harry stared at Neville in disbelief. "I…I guess I don't," he said. "But that means I have to break up with her," he sighed.

The smile fell off of Neville's face. "Yeah. I guess you do.

"Great," said Harry. "Just fantastic." And then, realizing he didn't need any more advice but did need a good, long night's sleep, Harry went off to his room and padded to his bed. He crawled under the covers and, grateful to forget everything that had happened to him, if just for a little while, he fell into a deep sleep.

"Sha-na-na-na-na-na, my oh my…"

"Get out!" Harry sat up in bed, launching a pillow at Fred and George as they stood at the door. The pillow stopped in mid-air, and before Harry could blink the twins had gone. He groaned in frustration, dropping back down and staring mutely up at the ceiling.

"Were those my brothers?" mumbled Ron, having just woken up.

"Yes."

"Uhm…what was that…"

"They're idiots," said Harry. He waited a long moment, then sat back up again. "Ugh, today is Talent day, isn't it?" he said.

Across the room from him, Ron also sat up in bed. He winced, smacking his palm against his forehead. "Damn it! I'd almost forgotten."

Harry had no clue what to expect. He still didn't think he had any actual talents worth mentioning – apart from his magical talents, anyway. Hearing a strange sound at the door he jumped up, stalking across the room to yank it open.

"Sha-na-na-na-na-na…"

"Shut up!" said Harry grumpily. Fred dropped his ukulele and George stared at him as if he were injured. "What are your talents?" he asked. "Apart from being really, really annoying?"

"Ah!" said George, sweeping back into the room with Fred close behind him. "We thought you fine young men would never ask!"

"Damn it! Did you have to ask them?" said Ron. He pulled his blanket up over his head.

Fred tossed the Ukulele down right on top of Ron, reaching out and cracking his knuckles. "You see, it's a very unusual talent, but one that my brother and I have perfected. Show 'em, George."

And all of a sudden, for some inexplicable reason, the twins started breakdancing. Harry had to admit, they weren't bad, but there was something laughable about the way they started moving around in the small space of Harry and Ron's room. He also realized, very quickly, that they had managed to put their considerable talents (when it came to their manipulation of time) to use when it came to the moves they were making. After several minutes had passed they stopped and both bowed.

Harry clapped politely. Sensing that it was safe to come out, Ron poked his head out from under the covers. "They change talents once a year," said Ron. "They decided on breakdancing over the summer. Last year they were professional bullriders…"

"And damn fine ones," said George

"And the year before that they took up acting."

"I was a brilliant Romeo, wasn't I?" said Fred.

"Yeah, until you knocked out Juliet," said George.

"Mom thinks it's a disgrace. Both Bill and Charlie had their talents figured out by their third year," said Ron.

"Yeah, well, when you have this much talent it's hard to find just one outlet for it," said George. "Come brother, we're needed elsewhere."

And with that the pair swept from the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Harry got dressed and after a little while Ron pulled himself out of bed and started getting ready too.

"So you can switch talents?" asked Harry.

Ron paused in the middle of pulling on his shoes. "Yeah," he said. "Sort of. I mean, they like you to stick to the same kind of thing but they don't push it. When the twins signed up for their talents they took up pretty much everything that would get them noticed by girls."

Harry laughed feebly. He still had no clue what he wanted to sign up for. His thoughts were preoccupied with the subject until after breakfast, when all of the other students went off to their classes and the second years were told to stay behind in the great hall, where a ton of stands had been set up all along the walls so the students could wander around and talk to different "professionals".

It was a no-power day, meaning that a few of the people in the room weren't aware they were currently setting up shop at a school for superheroes. A few students, Draco Malfoy being one of them, complained about this as best they could without getting detention for an entire year. Harry didn't mind so much, and any thoughts he had on the subject were pushed away when he sat down to take his aptitude test.

Nearby he heard Hermione tapping her fingers against the table. Unlike a lot of the students who were treating the thing as if it were a joke, she looked as intent as if she were taking a final. Harry tried his best to answer the test as well as he could, without really paying attention to what he was answering.

Ron, for his part, was concerning himself with trying to answer the test so he could get placed in some of the "cooler" classes.

There was a brief lull after he finished his testing, and he watched as some of the students were called up for brief meetings with some of the teachers who were, on this occasion, acting the part of "career counselors".

"Mr. Potter?" A woman with long red hair smiled at him and he got up, moving across to her table. She reached out her hand and he took it, surprised to feel how hard she gripped his hand. "Nice to meet you. My name is Barbara Gordon."

"Nice to meet you," said Harry. He remained silent as she picked up his tests, glancing over them quickly. "Well, this shows that you're more inclined to be a problem solver. You don't like attention…" She paused, looking up at him over the edge of her glasses. "Well, that's not much of a surprise, is it? I bet you get more attention than you could ever want, around here."

"You don't know the half of it," said Harry. He realized suddenly that he liked Miss Gordon a lot.

"I think we'll steer clear of the creative professions, and anything to do with writing too," she added. "A Metropolis reporter, you are not." She paused for a moment, leaning forward. "To be honest, this aptitude stuff is kind of silly. What do you really want to do, Harry?" she asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "Catch bad guys, I guess. But I have to have something else, don't I?" he added.

She nodded. "Yeah. You have to have something else. I know someone who gets really caught up in the…well, the catching bad guys thing. It's tough," she said. Harry wondered who she was talking about.

"I just don't think I have any talents. I mean, I'm not good at sports or anything, and I'm not good at art and stuff. And I don't think I want to be a businessman," he added, for fear that she'd immediately stick him in even more business classes. Miss Gordon laughed.

"I don't know a thirteen-year old boy who wants to be a businessman," she said. "Hmm. You certainly are tough." She tapped her pen against her cheek, as if deep in thought. "You know, I heard from my…well, my sources…that you did pretty well on a certain camping trip last year."

"Huh?" It took Harry a moment to remember the camping trip he and practically the entire school had taken the year before – the one that had been cut short when an entire wing of the school was blown up. "Oh, yeah," he said finally.

"With your money and with, what is according to this test, your very strong sense of adventure, I think I might have something for you." She scribbled something down on the piece of paper, handing it over to him.

"Wilderness survival?" he said, a little surprised. There was also a name and number scribbled on the page.

"That's my recommendation. Of course, the school will have to find somebody to train you. It's not something that's usually done through the Academy." She stuck out her hand again. "Nice meeting you Harry," she said.

"Yeah. Nice meeting you."

With that, he left the table and found the headmaster. He glanced down at Mrs. Gordon's recommendation and smiled. "It seems like a fine fit. We'll get in touch with the proper teachers immediately."

Harry left and went back to his room, waiting for his friends to arrive. Hermione showed up first, beaming from ear to ear. "I'm taking three different Talent courses," she announced. "I couldn't decide on just one, so we worked it out that I could be in all the ones that really interested me. There's going to be a building and robotics course, a weaponry course, and to top it all off I'm going to start getting lessons in teaching so I can work at universities over the summer…"

"Weaponry?" said Harry. "What, your parents are pacifists and you're going to be building guns?"

Hermione shot him back a horrified look. "Of course not! I mean…well yeah, that's what the course is about, but you have to know your enemy to be able to take them down. You know." She suddenly seemed uncertain of herself. "I mean…if I know how to develop weapons I can stop them….right?"

Thinking for a moment, Harry reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure you will use your powers for good instead of evil," he announced, making the troubled expression leave her as she laughed.

Neville entered next, lying down lazily on the floor. "Looks like I'm taking art classes," he said.

This caused both Hermione and Harry to react with surprise. "What? You think I don't have brains and brawn?" he said, and for a moment it seemed like Harry's usually troubled friend was actually happy about something.

Luna came in a while later, and with an airy sigh announced that she'd be taking modeling courses. This caused everybody to jump up in surprise. "Y-you're going to be a model?" said Hermione.

She shrugged, and whether she refused to talk about it anymore or whether she really just didn't have anything to say, the subject was dropped.

Dean's talent ended up being cooking, which Harry was personally grateful for. Maybe he could give the chef back on Oa some tips.

The final person back to the room was Ron, who practically jumped over everybody else who had crowded inside as he made his way back to his bed. "I don't want to talk about it," he said, before anybody else could speak to him.

"What is it?" asked Harry.

"I don't want to talk about it!" said Ron.

"Oh come on, you have to tell us!" said Harry.

Something flew at his head, and reaching up he caught it and turned the page over to see Mrs. Gordon's handwritten suggestion for Ron's talent.

"Surfing?" said Harry in surprise. Ron jumped up, grinning. "I know right? It's awesome!"

"Where the hell are you going to learn to surf in Kansas?" said Harry.

"Beats me!" said Ron. "But it's sure as hell a lot better than ballet!"


End file.
